What is EURspace ?

The EURspace: European IVT Recognition Gateway, reference no. 2015-1-PT01-KA202-013119, is a European Project financed by the Erasmus+ Programme, KA2, which has the general aim to facilitate the mobility of IVET students across Europe and contribute towards the development of vocational education and training without borders, as well as transparency in the recognition and certification of the learning outcomes acquired abroad.

The EURspace products will provide support to ensure the recognition, validation, attribution of credits and certification of Initial Vocational Training Units, applied within other European countries, allowing the combination of theoretical and practical approaches, therefore extending the national scale to the European scale.

Project start: 01-09-2015

Project end: 01-09-2018

Target groups

VET Professionals, Teachers, Trainers, Principals, Directors of VET Centres, Technicians who work in VET Mobility Programmes, representatives or technicians from organizations that intend to promote European Mobility Programmes

Specific aims

To develop a European Digital Platform that provides support and ensures the recognition, validation, allocation of credits and certification of qualifications and/or training units, based on learning outcomes, applied within other European countries, within the context of Initial Vocational Training Courses, referenced in the European guidelines and recommendations about ECVET, EQF and EQAVET

To implement a Pilot Project regarding the recognition, validation and certification of learning outcome units, for the technical component of the Hotel and Restaurant Management Courses, among European countries

To develop a transferable Matching Methodology and elaborate Matching Matrices between the curricula of the different countries, in reference to the learning outcome units involved in the Pilot Project

To create a EURspace Pedagogical Kit, conceived through the Matching Methodology followed during the Pilot Project

To create a Guide to support ECVET Understanding for Learners in IVET

To train professionals from European countries to manage the European Digital Platform and to apply / to use the Methodology and Tools developed during the Pilot Project

To disseminate the Project’s outputs through six multiplier events to take place in Portugal, Spain, France, Romania, Lithuania and Turkey

Methodology

Implementation of a Pilot Project intended to standardize the recognition, validation and certification of learning outcome units, among European countries, focusing on the technical components of Hotel and Restaurant Management Courses.A Matching Methodology will be developed, which follows the next steps: identification of the technological, technical and practical learning outcomes that are common to the qualifications defined within the different countries; grouping the learning outcomes in nuclear units; identification of common units of learning outcomes between the curricula of the partner countries (matching); definition of the credit system and the attribution of ECVET points; setting performance criteria and requirements in order to assess the learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, competences); conception of Matching Matrices between the curricula of the partner countries.

Project outputs

O1: Digital European Platform to support the recognition, validation, allocation of credits and certification of qualifications and/or training units, through the references of the learning outcomes developed by VET participants within the context of the European Mobility Programmes. The Platform is digital, consisting in a software, which shall be accessed via the official project website.

The Platform will be available in English and in the mother tongue of each partner country.

Platform target group: entities that promote Vocational Educational Training courses; entities involved in European mobility programmes for Learners in Initial Vocational Training courses (sending / hosting / intermediary entities); entities credited by the host organizations to conduct internships (credited means that the entity was subject to a pedagogical and technical quality assessment, by a partnership, to ensure the internship); participants in European mobility programmes for Learners in Initial Vocational Training.

O2: EURspace Pedagogical Kit composed of a Methodological Guide for Professionals (descriptive guide of the Matching Methodology developed) and a Battery of Instruments, elaborated through the methodology followed during the Pilot Project.

The Methodological Guide for Professionals and the Battery of Instruments will be available in the Digital Platform, for consultation and download, by other partnerships and VET organizations. These instruments will be available in English and in the mother tongue of each partner country.

EURspace Pedagogical Kit will have a pedagogical character, will be informative and formative, descriptive, sustainable and interactive. The registered partnerships mobility and VET organizations registered can download the EURspace Pedagogical Kit and use the pre-defined models or adapt them according to their own needs.

O3: Guide to support ECVET Understanding for Learners in Initial Vocational Education and Training – EURspace for Learners in IVET. This Guide is aimed at Learners attending Initial Vocational Education and Training Courses in Europe.

EURspace for Learners in IVET aims to:

inform about ECVET;

provide guidelines on the quality assurance of a European mobility programme;

provide guidelines on choosing mobility programmes that ensure the recognition, validation and certification of the learning outcomes acquired abroad within the context of the course that the student is attending.

Short-term Joint Staff Training Event

After the development of the Project’s outputs a transnational training event will take place in Portugal.

The purpose of the transnational short-term joint staff training event is to train professionals from the countries involved in the partnership to manage the European Digital Platform and to apply / to use the Methodology and Tools developed during the Pilot Project.

This training event is fundamental for the good usability of the intellectual outputs developed during the project’s implementation. This is the first step to ensure the sustainability of the project’s outputs within the partnership.

To present and to demonstrate the European Platform to support the Recognition, Validation, Allocation of Credits and Certification in Initial Vocational Training;

To present and to demonstrate the EURspace Pedagogical Kit, consisting of a Methodological Guide for Professionals and a Battery of Instruments, conceived through the Matching Methodology developed during the Pilot Project implementation;

To present and to provide the Guide to Support ECVET Understanding for Learners in IVET;